Tēnā koutou e ngā kaipānui

My name’s Nic and I’ve always had a passion for knowledge and learning things, and so science came naturally. I have always put my hand up for science opportunities, camps, classes and wānanga alike. All of these efforts began to really pay off when I was selected to attend Powering Potential 2017 in December last year. Here I made 39 new friends from all corners of Aotearoa and was mentored by some of the best minds around. But it seems my journey with science really culminated with my selection for the Youth ANZAAS (Australian & New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science)2018 trip to Melbourne. Nine kiwi secondary school students were chosen to fly to Melbourne to attend this amazing science conference. 

The itinerary was packed full of behind the scenes tours of medical, commercial and defence research labs, tours of local universities, the Melbourne museum, and even a trip to the Australian synchrotron! I met some fantastic and interesting people on this trip from all backgrounds but who all shared a love for the sciences and knowledge. I realised that these people I met are going to be the leading brains of tomorrow, and here I was teaching them to count to ten in Te Reo Māori. I truly cannot wait to see where all these amazing people end up. I am extremely grateful towards the Royal Society Te Apārangi for helping students like me recognise their potential and to the TSSTA for helping to actually get us kids over there. 

I would love to see more passionate scientists from Otago Boys' go on trips such as this and encourage any boys who like the sound of this to put their hand up for all opportunities that come your way, you’ll never know where they’ll lead.